Guest Post by Paul Kostek (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Frequently in my work as a systems engineer I’m faced with producing several artifacts for a project, typically a system architecture, model(s), requirements, safety analysis and risk analysis (management plan).

The challenge is many of these are treated as serial activities, items to be completed but not necessarily tied together.  To produce an architecture and requirements that reflect all of the known/identified issues we should be working on all of these activities concurrently or at the least have a first cut at the safety and risk analysis before starting the requirements.  From a project planning stand-point how these are shown on a schedule are driven by the size of the team and the project schedule.  “What do we need to complete a phase/gate review”  is how the schedule ends up being built versus what do we need to proceed with the systems design and architecture. [Read more…]